The Cavaliers and their 11th-hour replacement coach take down the Wildcats at the Hall of Fame Series.
A nightmare week for Villanova Basketball has come to an end.
After suffering a loss to Big 5 rival Saint Joseph’s earlier on Tuesday, Villanova headed down to Baltimore for the Hall of Fame Series against Virginia and played from behind for a majority of the game.
Despite losing their starting point guard to the transfer portal in the wake of Tony Bennett’s sudden retirement, plus the 11th-hour coaching replacement needed in the aftermath, the Cavaliers were in control for most of the game.
A strong second-half performance helped them pull away for a 70-60 win over the Wildcats on Friday night.
“A lot of credit goes to Virginia, they really defended at a high level,” Villanova coach Kyle Neptune said. “Thought we had some easy looks, but they made it tough. Made it really hard to score and they made some timely threes. A lot of credit goes to those guys — thought they were organized offensively. They weren’t really affected by our press. They moved the ball really well and did a great job.”
Virginia rattled off a 17-5 run early in the second half, and the Wildcats never recovered. T.J. Power drilled a three-pointer with 18:37 remaining to spark the run. Blake Buchanan topped off the spurt with a free throw to give the Cavaliers a 50-33 lead, with 12:13 left.
The Cavaliers held a double-digit lead from that point forward, fending off the ‘Cats at every turn.
Virginia shot well from beyond the arc all-game long, knocking down 14-of-25 (56.0%) three-point shots as a team. Isaac McKneely tormented the ‘Cats all night, scoring a game-high 23 points on 8-of-9 shooting, which included a perfect 6-for-6 showing from long range.
However, Virginia was effective as a unit. It shot 25-of-49 (51.0%) overall. In the second half, it stepped things up a bit, shooting 14-of-26 (53.8%).
Eric Dixon led the ‘Cats once again. The senior big man had a team-high 20 points and eight rebounds. Outside of Dixon, the rest of the squad shot just 13-of-42 (30.9%).
“I thought we had some early shots that we missed, but one thing that’s hurt us is ball movement and turnovers,” Neptune said of his team’s offense. “Some timely turnovers that we just have to get better at. I think our guys are still learning each other, got to get more cohesive, but that’s hurt us in key moments.”
Villanova started the game with a 9-2 run, before stalling out. The Cavaliers hit four straight three-pointers midway through the second half to fuel a 12-0 run and take a 20-11 lead.
The Cavaliers pushed their first-half lead to as high as 12 points, but the ‘Cats fight hard in the closing minutes before the break. Tyler Perkins drilled a three, then Eric Dixon had a four-point play to make it a close 31-26 deficit at half.
That would be the closest the ‘Cats would get to catching the Wahoos.
Jordan Longino had 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting, plus three steals in the loss. Tyler Perkins added eight points off the bench.
For Virginia, aside from McKneely, Andrew Rohde and Jacob Cofie each scored in double figures off the bench. Rohde added 13 points, three rebounds and four assists, while Cofie had 12 points and six boards.
With the loss, Villanova drops to 2-3 overall. The Wildcats are back in action on Tuesday for a Big 5 battle against Penn. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
“Obviously, we got to get better,” Neptune said. “We got to get a lot better. Virginia is a good team. They’re a high level team, well coached, disciplined, so there’s no shame going into that game and not getting the results that we want, but I think there’s a lot of things that we have to get better at and we have to get better quicker.